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CSS Shenandoah
} |} CSS ''Shenandoah, formerly ''Sea King, was an iron-framed, teak-planked, full rigged ship, with auxiliary steam power, captained by Confederate States Navy Commander James Waddell, a North Carolinian with twenty years of prior service in the United States Navy.Baldwin, pp. 6–11 During 12½ months of 1864–1865 the ship undertook commerce raiding resulting in the capture and sinking or bonding of thirty-eight Union merchant vessels, mostly New Bedford whaleships. This ship is notable for firing the last shot of the American Civil War, at a whaler in waters off the Aleutian Islands.Baldwin, p. 255 History and mission She was designed as a British commercial transport vessel for the East Asia tea trade and troop transport, built on the River Clyde in Scotland. The Confederate Government purchased her in September 1864 for use as an armed cruiser to capture and destroy Union merchant ships. On October 8, she sailed from London ostensibly for Bombay, India, on a trading voyage. She rendezvoused at Funchal, Madeira, with the steamer Laurel, bearing officers and the nucleus of a crew for Sea King, together with naval guns, ammunition, and stores. Commanding officer Lieutenant James Iredell Waddell supervised her conversion to a ship-of-war in nearby waters. Waddell was barely able, however, to bring his crew to half strength even with additional volunteers from Sea King and Laurel. The new cruiser was commissioned on October 19 and her name changed to Shenandoah. The ship, commanded by Captain Waddell, then sailed around the Cape of Good Hope of Africa to Australia. While at Melbourne, Victoria, in January 1865, Waddell obtained additional men and supplies. In accord with operation concepts originated in the Confederate Navy Department and developed by its agents in Europe, Shenandoah was assigned to "seek out and utterly destroy" commerce in areas as yet undisturbed (i.e., attack Union ships), and thereafter her course lay in pursuit of merchantmen on the Cape of Good Hope–Australia route and of the Pacific whaling fleet. En route to the Cape she picked up six prizes. Five of these were put to the torch or scuttled, after Captain Waddell had safely rescued crew and passengers; the other was bonded and employed for transport of prisoners to Bahia, Brazil. Australia stopover Still short-handed, though her crew had been increased by voluntary enlistments from prizes, Shenandoah arrived at Melbourne, Victoria, on January 25, 1865, where she filled her complement and her storerooms.Baldwin, p. 85 She also took on 40 crew members who were stowaways from Melbourne. However, they were not enlisted until the ship was outside the legal limits of Australian waters. The Shipping Articles show that all these 40 crew members enlisted on the day of her departure from Melbourne, February 18, 1865. Nineteen of her crew deserted at Melbourne, some of whom gave statements of their service to the United States Consul there. An 1871 hearing at the International Court in Geneva awarded damages of £820,000 against Britain to the US government for use of the port facilities at Williamstown by the CSS Shenandoah. Vessels captured Sea King departed from Liverpool on October 8, 1864, and on October 19, off the coast of France, was surreptitiously re-commissioned as the warship CSS Shenandoah. En route to Cape Horn, she captured and disposed of eight prizes in the Atlantic Ocean. Shenandoah took only one prize in the Indian Ocean, but hunting became more profitable after refitting in Melbourne. En route to the North Pacific whaling grounds, on April 3–4, Waddell burned four whalers in the Caroline Islands. After a 3-week cruise to the ice and fog of the Sea of Okhotsk yielded only a single prize, due to a warning which had preceded him, Waddell headed north past the Aleutian Islands into the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. Shenandoah then proceeded to capture 11 more prizes.Baldwin, pp. 238–254 On June 27, 1865, he learned, from a prize Susan & Abigail, of General Robert E. Lee's surrender when her captain produced a San Francisco newspaper reporting the flight from Richmond, Virginia, of the Confederate Government 10 weeks previously. The same paper contained Confederate President Jefferson Davis's proclamation, after Lee's surrender, that the "war would be carried on with re-newed vigor." He then proceeded to capture 10 more whalers in the space of 7 hours in the waters just below the Arctic Circle. It was not until August 2 that Shenandoah learned of the final Confederate collapse when she encountered the British barque Barracouta. Among the devastating news was surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston and his various armies (April 26), Kirby Smith's, (May 26) and Magruder's armies and, crucially, the capture of Mr. Davis and a part of his cabinet.LAST CONFEDERATE CRUISER by CORNELIUS E. HUNT one of her officers. 267 Captain Waddell then disarmed the ship and proceeded back to surrender at Liverpool. | header =Names and dates of 38 vessels captured by Shenandoah | content = 1. On October 30, 1864, the cargo bark Alina was scuttled south of the Azores, west of Dakar, near . 2. On November 6, the cargo schooner Charter Oak of Boston, Massachusetts, was burned in the mid Atlantic at . 3. On Nov. 8, the cargo bark D. Godfrey of Boston was sunk southwest of the Cape Verde Islands . 4. On Nov. 10, the cargo hermaphrodite brig Susan of Boston was scuttled southwest of the Cape Verde Islands. 5, 6. On Nov. 12, the neutral cargo ship Kate Prince of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was bonded for $40,000. at . Prisoners were sent to Bahia, Brazil, and the bark Adelaide was ransomed for $24,000. and released. 7. On Nov.13, the cargo schooner Lizzie M. Stacey of Boston was scuttled and burned near the Equator. 8. On December 4, the whaling bark Edward was burned off Tristan de Cunha, near . 9. On Dec. 29, the bark Delphine of Bangor, Maine, was burned at in the Indian Ocean, south southwest of India. During January 26 to February 17, 1865, repairs, crew recruiting and resupply was done at Hobson's Bay, Australia. 10. On April 3, the whaling bark Pearl of New London was burned at Lohd Pah Harbor , Pohnpei Island in Micronesia. 11, 12. On April 4, the whaling ships Hector of New Bedford and Edward Carey, of San Francisco, were burned at Lohd Pah Harbor. 13. On April 10, the whaling bark Harvest nominally of Honolulu was also burned at Lohd Pah Harbor On 4-13-1865, at 7:30 am, the Shenandoah departed Lohd Pah Harbor for the Bering Sea. 14. On May 28, the whaling bark Abigail of New Bedford was burned in the Sea of Okhotsk at north of the Kurile Islands. The rich whaling grounds in the Bering Sea between Siberia and Alaska were a safe haven for Yankee whalers during the American Civil War. This prosperous whaling ended in the spring and summer of 1865 when the Confederate raider Shenandoah arrived and captured twenty of the fifty eight Yankee whalers working here. These whalers were destroyed more than a month after Jefferson Davis was imprisoned on May 19, 1865. 15-20. On June 22, the whaling ship Euphrates, of New Bedford, was burned in the Bering Strait near . The whaling bark Jirah Swift, of New Bedford, was burned in the Bering Sea. The whaling ship Milo was bonded for $46,000. The whaling ship William Thompson, of New Bedford, was burned northeast of Cape Narrows in the Bering Sea. The whaling bark Sophia Thornton of New Bedford was burned in the Bering Sea at and the Brigantine Susan & Abigail of San Francisco was burned in the Bering Sea at . 21. On June 25, the ship General Williams of New London, Connecticut, was burned near St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Strait at . 22-27. On June 26, the whaling barks Catherine and Isabella of New Bedford were burned in the Bering Sea at . The whaling ship Gipsey was burned in the Bering Strait, the whaling ship William C. Nye of New Bedford was burned in the Bering Sea and the whaling ship Nimrod of New Bedford was burned near St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea and finally, the whaling bark General Pike of New Bedford, was bonded for $30,000. in the Bering Sea, loaded with 252 prisoners and sent off to San Francisco. 28-38. On June 28, the whaler Brunswick was burned near Bering Straits Narrows, the whaling bark Congress of New Bedford was burned near Bering Strait, the whaling bark Covington of Warren, Rhode Island, was burned in East Cape Bay near Bering Strait Narrows, the whaling ships Favorite of New Haven, Connecticut, Hillman, Isaac Howland, Martha and Nassau of New Bedford were burned in East Cape Bay in the Bering Sea. The whaling bark Waverly of New Bedford was burned in the Bering Sea, near the Diomede Islands. The whaling ship James Maury of New Bedford was bonded for $37,600. in East Cape Bay and retained for transporting prisoners to United States and finally, on this last and busiest day of captures, the whaling bark Nile of New Bedford was bonded for $41,000. in Bering Strait, loaded with 222 prisoners and sent off to San Francisco. The Shenandoah had a plan to attack San Francisco, but on August 2, 1865, before they reached California, Shenandoah learned from the Barracouta that the Civil War had fully ended. }} Barracouta had come from San Francisco; Waddell was heading to the city to attack it, believing it weakly defended. Immediately Shenandoah underwent physical alteration. She was dismantled as a man-of-war; her battery was dismounted and struck below, and her hull repainted to resemble an ordinary merchant vessel. Surrender of CSS Shenandoah Regardless of Davis's proclamation and knowing the unreliability of newspapers at the time, Captain Waddell and the crew knew returning to a US port would mean facing a Union court with a Northern perspective of the war. They correctly predicted the risk of being tried in a US court and hanged as pirates. This later showed to be accurate. Commerce raiders were not included in the reconciliation and amnesty that Confederate soldiers were given. Captain Raphael Semmes of CSS Alabama escaped charges of piracy by surrendering May 1, 1865 as a Ground General under Joseph E. Johnston. Semmes's former sailors surrendered as artillerymen."The Pursuit p 123" The CSS Shenandoah was therefore surrendered by Captain Waddell to the Captain of on November 6, 1865, after traveling 9,000 miles (14,500 km) to Liverpool to do so. This marked the last surrender of the American Civil War. She was then turned over to the United States government.The confederate surrender The United States Naval War Records published in 1894 as The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion state: "November 5 - Arrived in the Mersey, off Liverpool, and on Monday, the 6th, surrendered the Shenandoah to the British nation, by letter to Lord John Russell, premier of Great Britain. (signed) JAMES I WADDELL."United States Government Printing Office, 1894 After the surrender of Shenandoah to the British, the British had to decide what to do with the Confederate crew, knowing the consequences of piracy charges."Last Flag Down" | header = Shenandoah Officer list | content = Lieutenant Commander James I. Waddell, of North Carolina :First Lieutenant and Executive Officer, W. C. Whittle* of Virginia :Lieutenant John Grimball of South Carolina :Lieutenant Sidney Smith Lee* Jr. of Virginia :Lieutenant Francis Thornton Chew of Missouri :Lieutenant Dabney Minor Scales of Mississippi :Sailing Master Irvine S. Bulloch of Georgia :Passed Midshipman Orris Applewaith Browne* of Virginia :Passed Midshipman John Thompson Mason* of Virginia :Surgeon Charles E. Lining of South Carolina :Assistant Surgeon F. J. McNulty of District of Columbia :Paymaster William Breedlove Smith of Louisiana :Chief Engineer M. O`Brien of Louisiana :Assistant Engineer Codd of Maryland :Master`s mate John Minor of Virginia :Master's Mate Lodge Colton of Maryland :Master's Mate Cornelius E. Hunt of Virginia :Boatswain George Harwood of England :Gunner Guy of England :Carpenter O`Shea of Ireland :Sailmaker Henry Alcott of England }} After a full investigation by law officers of the crown, it was decided that the officers and crew had done nothing against the rules of war or the laws of nations to justify being held as prisoners, so they were unconditionally released. But the authorities of the United States considered them pirates and would have treated them as such if they had fallen into their hands. S. S. Lee, Orris M. Brown, John T. Mason and W. C. Whittle sometime in December 1865 sailed from Liverpool to Buenos Aires, via Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo. After prospecting for a while, they went to Rosario, upon Paraná River, and near there bought a small place and began farming. As the animosity of the United States Government began to soften towards them, Brown and Mason returned home, Lee and Whittle returned sometime later. On returning home, Mason took a law course at the University of Virginia, graduated, and was successful at his profession. He settled in Baltimore, and married Miss Helen Jackson, of New York, daughter of the late Lieutenant Alonzo Jackson of the U. S. Navy. Conclusions Shenandoah remained at sea for 12 months and 17 days, traversed 58,000 miles (carrying the Confederate flag around the globe for the only time) and sank or captured 38 ships, mostly whalers. Waddell took close to one thousand prisoners, without a single war casualty among his crew: two men died of disease. The reason the vessel did not have any war casualties was because it was never involved in a battle against any Union Naval vessel, as was the [[CSS Alabama|CSS Alabama]], but instead took United States merchant vessels.Baldwin, p. 302 In 1866 the US, having taken possession of Shenandoah, sold her to the first Sultan of Zanzibar, who renamed her after himself (El Majidi).http://americancivilwar.com/tcwn/civil_war/Navy_Ships/CSS_Shenandoah.html On April 15, 1872 a hurricane hit Zanzibar. Shenandoah (El Majidi) was one of 6 ships owned by Seyed Burgash which were blown on shore and seriously damaged."Great Britain & Zanzibar" British and Foreign State Papers Page 551 Repercussions During her year-long service as a commerce raider, Shenandoah caused disorder and devastation across the globe for Union merchant shipping. The Confederate cruiser claimed more than 20 prizes valued at nearly $1,400,000 ($ }} in today's dollars).Baldwin, 225 In an important development in international law, the U.S. Government pursued claims (collectively called the Alabama Claims) against the British Government, and following a court of arbitration, won heavy damages. Battle ensign , 1863–1865 (photo:#0985.03.0193)]] The battle ensign of CSS Shenandoah is unique amongst all of the flags of the Confederate States of America as it was the only Confederate flag to circumnavigate the Earth during the Confederacy, and it was the last Confederate flag to be lowered by a combatant unit in the Civil War (Liverpool, UK, on November 6, 1865).Baldwin, 319 Shenandoah s battle ensign has been in the Museum of the Confederacy's collection since 1907 and is currently on display. Lieutenant Dabney Scales CSN, gave the flag to a cousin, Eliza Hull Maury, for safekeeping. Eliza Hull Maury was a daughter of and Richard Launcelot Maury was the eldest son of Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury. Colonel Richard Launcelot Maury CSA, Eliza's brother, brought the flag from England in 1873, and donated it to the Museum in 1907. The flag itself measures 88" x 136." source: Robert F. Hancock, Director of Collections & Senior Curator, The Museum of the Confederacy See also *Lost Empire (Cussler novel) References Notes Bibliography *Baldwin, John, Last Flag Down: The Epic Journey of the Last Confederate Warship, Crown Publishers, 2007, ISBN 5-557-76085-7, Random House, Incorporated, 2007, ISBN 0-7393-2718-6 *Chaffin, Tom, Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah, Hill and Wang/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. ISBN 0-8090-9511-4 *Schooler, Lynn, The Last Shot: The Incredible Story of the CSS ''Shenandoah and the True Conclusion of the Civil War'', HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 0-06-052333-6 *United States Government Printing Office, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, United States Naval War Records Office, United States Office of Naval Records and Library, 1894 External links *Official records of the Union and Confederate navies in the war of the rebellion By United States. Navy Dept, Washington : U.S. G.P.O., 1894–1922. *Marauders of the Sea, Confederate Merchant Raiders During the American Civil War CSS Shenandoah. 1864–1865. Captain James I. Waddell *History on navy.mil *Correspondence Respecting the Shenandoah Presented to both houses of Parliament, London, 1866 pp. 67–181 *Edwin H. Abbott Papers, W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, University of Alabama Category:Naval ships of the Confederate States of America Category:Clyde-built ships Category:United States Navy West Virginia-related ships Category:United States Navy Virginia-related ships Category:Commerce raiders Category:Raids of the American Civil War Category:1863 ships Category:Maritime incidents in 1864 Category:Maritime incidents in 1865 Category:Maritime incidents in 1872 Category:Auxiliary steamers Category:Pre-statehood history of Alaska